


Words Unsaid

by Pline



Category: 9-1-1 (TV)
Genre: Bobby Nash Being a Dad, Gen, Henrietta "Hen" Wilson Being A Good Friend, Humor, Hurt/Comfort, M/M, Misunderstandings, Pre-Relationship, Self-Esteem Issues, Team as Family
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-05-04
Updated: 2020-05-04
Packaged: 2021-03-02 19:01:25
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,265
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24001759
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Pline/pseuds/Pline
Summary: “What’s going on?” Bobby and Buck say in unison.“You two,” Athena announces, “are going to talk things out.”“There’s nothing to talk about,” Buck says, like a liar. “Everything is fine.”.Buck overhears Bobby say that he's not his kid. He doesn't take it very well.
Relationships: Athena Grant & Henrietta "Hen" Wilson, Evan "Buck" Buckley & Bobby Nash, Evan "Buck" Buckley & Henrietta "Hen" Wilson, Evan "Buck" Buckley/Eddie Diaz
Comments: 97
Kudos: 969





	Words Unsaid

**Author's Note:**

> This whole fic was born born after I saw [ this gifset](https://bilbobagglns.tumblr.com/post/617086848035143680/judsonryder-anonymous-requested-bobby-being).
> 
> I wrote most of it in the middle of the night, I was so overwhelmed by my love for this dad son duo.
> 
> I am on tumblr [@bilbobagglns](https://bilbobagglns.tumblr.com/)

“Very funny,” Bobby says evenly. “But Buck isn’t actually my kid.”

Unnoticed, Buck makes his escape before anyone can see how affected he is by his captain’s words.

* * *

Hen says one last _I love you_ to Karen and hangs up, a soft smile still tugging at her lips. She loves her wife so deeply and she wants nothing but her happiness. She is never going to hurt her again, she has promised herself that.

Humming a tune to a song she doesn’t know the lyrics to, Hen climbs back upstairs, ready to lay down for as long as she can and rest.

Her gaze lands on Buck moping in the loft, alone, long after everyone has headed to the bunk beds to catch some sleep before their next call.

She frowns and, giving up on the idea of sleep for the moment, she joins him on the couch.

“Everything alright?”

He shrugs, not even looking at her in the eye.

“You’re going to have to do more than that to convince me.”

“I’m fine,” he says, voice low like he is trying not to cry.

Hen abandons all pretense of teasing. Something is wrong with her friend, and she has never been able to walk away from someone who needed help.

“You’re not fine,” she says gently. “What’s wrong?”

He hesitates, glancing at her before looking back down right away. She rarely sees this side of Buck, timid, unsure – shy almost.

“It’s dumb,” he mumbles after a moment of silence.

“It’s not dumb if it’s bothering you.”

Silence stretches between them. Hen can be patient, Buck on the other hand…

As expected, he is the first to crack.

“You know how I never talk about my childhood.”

Hen is not sure there’s a question in there but she answers anyway when he doesn’t say anything else, “Yes. I’ve noticed, but you don’t have to talk about it.”

“I know. It’s just – my parents, they weren’t, they aren’t the most – ” he cuts himself and groans.

Frustration is clear on his face. She does not rush him, she will let him take all the time he needs to find his words.

“Earlier today I heard Bobby say that I’m not his kid. And, obviously, I know that. I mean we joke and all that, but I know he isn’t actually my dad, it’s just, I don’t know…”

“It hurt,” she says for him. “You wish he was your dad, don’t you?”

He gives a shaky nod. His eyes are bright with tears though none have spilled.

“I told you it was dumb.”

“Buckaroo,” she breathes out, feeling for her friend.

Wordlessly, she reaches out to him and draws him into a hug, squeezing him tight. He holds onto her, burying himself into her embrace like he has never been held before.

“You know Bobby loves you,” she says against his hair.

“Yeah, I know,” he replies, still sounding too dejected for her taste.

She lets go but doesn’t move away from him. They are still sitting very close, their legs touching and Hen is an only child, but in moments such as this one, she thinks she knows what it’s like to have a brother anyway.

“He loves you,” she insists. “He does, just as much as you love him.”

Buck wants to believe her, she can see that, yet he still holds his heart close to him, afraid that it’s gonna be broken again. He is one of the most loving people she has ever met, he loves with everything that he has, holds nothing back.

Life must be hard sometimes for someone so giving. She knows Buck has had his fair part of heartache but he still continues to love, selfless, resigned too. He is so sure that people won’t care as much about him as he does them.

She has an idea about why that is, but as Buck said, he never talks about his childhood.

“It’s gotta be hard for him, Buck. Maybe he can’t say those words out loud because of what he’s lost, but that doesn’t mean he doesn’t love you like that.”

“I get it,” but he doesn’t, she can see it. “It’s fine, Hen. I can’t expect people to care about me a certain way.”

Helpless, she can only look at him get up, a sad smile tugging at his lips.

“Thanks, Hen. You should get some sleep.”

He is gone before she can add anything else.

* * *

Buck starts avoiding Bobby.

No one but Hen understands what’s happening, least of all Bobby who, crushed, must feel like he has done something terribly wrong.

Jokes fall flat, every single person on the team walk on eggshells, shifts feel longer than they have ever had.

Hen does not know what to do. Whenever she tries to talk to Buck, he finds any excuse to avoid her, even once running away, literally.

She has heard from Eddie that he has started avoiding him too, she feels both angry and saddened by that. She can feel Buck pull away from them, and she knows it’s in a twisted sense of self-protection.

He must think that he needs time to harden his heart, to lick his wounds.

Soon, he is going to come back to himself, as smiling as ever, and everyone else will think nothing of it, but Hen knows that will mean he has accepted his fate as the one left behind, the one unloved.

She won’t let that happen.

* * *

“Bobby has been all out of sorts with this whole Buck business.”

Hen stills. She makes sure to take a careful sip of her drink before saying, as inconspicuous as she can, “What Buck business?”

“Like you don’t already know,” Athena says, waving her head as if to chase the mere idea away.

Then, she furrows her brows, gaze fixed on Hen. Her head tilts and Hen knows her friend has shifted into full cop mode.

“You know something, don’t you.”

It’s not a question.

“It’s not my place to say,” Hen tries but Athena clicks her tongue, silencing her.

“My husband has been miserable for days. He’s been talking non-stop about Buck and as much as I love the boy, I need a break. So yes, it is your place to say.”

To hell with it, Hen decides. This might even be the solution help the two idiots. God knows they won’t manage to deal with the whole thing on their own.

“Buck has overheard Bobby say something, and it hurt him. I think he’s been pulling away to protect himself.”

“Protect himself?” Athena exclaims, incredulous. “From Bobby?”

“Athena, Buck heard Bobby say he wasn’t his kid.”

“Oh.” Silence. “I see.”

The two women pause, both silently grieving men and their incapacity to use their damn words.

“We’re going to fix this,” Athena decides.

This is what Hen has been fearing. Athena does not need Hen’s help, after all, Bobby is her husband and Buck is her husband’s adopted kid – also Athena’s kid, but Hen is not about to point that out.

“I really don’t wanna get involved.”

Athena raises one single eyebrow, “So everything has been all dandy at the station?”

Dammit.

Of course not. Buck has been withdrawn and silent, and Bobby keeps throwing him hurt and confused looks. Athena knows she has won without Hen having to say anything at all.

Well, at least she can try and do damage control.

* * *

The plan is simple.

Hen pretexts needing Buck’s help on their day off and Buck, always the golden retriever, rushes at the occasion to be of service. She would almost feel bad if she weren’t doing that for his own good.

Meanwhile, Athena is taking care of Bobby. Hen is not sure what her excuse is, but she knows it will work.

The show-off is set at Hen’s house – a neutral territory.

Both men take a double take at seeing each other. Athena, pointedly, stands in front of the door, blocking the exit.

“What’s going on?” Bobby and Buck say in unison.

“You two,” Athena announces, “are going to talk things out.”

“There’s nothing to talk about,” Buck says, like a liar. “Everything is fine.”

But Athena is decided and once she has made up her mind on something, even entire armies could never stop her.

Bobby must see her determination because he sighs, and turns to Buck who still looks about two seconds away from bolting out of the window. Just in case, Hen angles her body so that she stands in the way.

“Why have you been so distant, Buckaroo?” Bobby asks, hurt.

Buck recoils at the pain in his captain’s voice, shame clouding his usually bright blue eyes.

“I’m sorry, Cap’,” he breathes out, voice small. “It’s all on me. It’s my crap I have to deal with. I shouldn’t have taken it out on you.”

Oh, for God’s sake.

“Buck heard you, Bobby,” Hen cuts in.

“Hen,” Buck hisses, eyes burning, betrayed.

She ignores him. “He heard you when you said he wasn’t your kid.”

Everything stops, like the air has been sucked out of the room. Slowly, Bobby turns his gaze back on Buck who is so impossibly still, body tensed to its breaking point.

Then, his shoulders sag. He looks down, but not before Hen notices the tears.

“I’m sorry,” he repeats sadly. “It isn’t fair that I held that against you. It’s stupid. Of course I’m not your kid.”

He lets out a humorless laugh. Hen’s heart breaks at the empty sound.

“Like, even my actual dad doesn’t want me. It’s fine.”

“Buck,” Bobby says, strangled.

But Buck shakes his head. His fists are clenched, he bites his bottom lip, hard enough that it could draw blood.

“Can we forget I said that?” he pleads, sounding desperate. “Let’s just forget this whole thing.”

“You’d wanna be _my_ kid?” Bobby asks, something like awe on his face.

“Considering he’s been moping about what you said, I’d say it’s obvious,” Athena chimes in from where she is standing.

“Do we really need an audience for this?” Buck mumbles, cheeks red with embarrassment.

“Yes. I don’t trust you two to talk without supervision or you’ll both end up misunderstanding everything and getting hurt again.”

Silence falls again. Buck won’t look at any of them, Hen aches to go and wrap Buck in a hug, but this isn’t her place just yet.

“Can I go now?” he asks. “Now that we all have had a laugh at my many issues.”

“No one is laughing, Buckaroo,” Athena says, gentle.

“Look, I don’t know what you want. I apologized, okay? I’ll stop making things weird at the station. I’ll suck it up, but can I just go now, _please_?”

His voice breaks on the last word.

That’s what finally pushes Bobby into movement.

Suddenly, he is dragging Buck into his arms, holding him close like he is afraid he might disappear on him if he even let go at all. Hen can’t quite understand Bobby’s litany of whispered words but she does not need to.

She shares a look with Athena, and both women leave the room.

“You are, you are,” they hear Bobby murmur before they close the door.

* * *

Things go back to normal.

Well, a new normal that is.

Buck goes back to being his energetic self, babbling and happy, and Bobby goes back to giving him fond looks that try to be exasperated.

For anyone not on the team, nothing at all would have changed.

But Hen, like Eddie and Chim, can see how more at ease both Buck and Bobby are. They might not have noticed it themselves, but that unsaid thing between them was weighing on them.

She is glad that they have finally been able to talk, even though it took abducting them and forcing them into a room to do it.

“You do realize what that means?”

Eddie frowns at Chim’s question, confused, “What?”

“You’re going to have to ask for Bobby’s blessing when you finally decide to pop the question to Buck.”

Hen bursts out laughing – Eddie’s spluttering and blushing is priceless, and she just has to snap a quick picture of it for prosperity. Bobby is smiling too, fond and proud.

“Buck and I aren’t dating,” Eddie finally manages to say.

“Could have fooled me,” Chim replies with a blinding smile.

“It’s more like they’re fooling themselves,” Hen can’t help saying.

“Who’s fooling themselves about what?” Buck asks as he appears out of nowhere, dropping in the empty chair next to, of course, Eddie.

“It’s nothing.”

Buck squints at them like he is trying to read the truth on them but, as much as the team likes to rile them up separately, they won’t say something upright to both of them at the same time.

It’s their business to deal with, Hen has already gotten involved with other people’s business lately to want to do it again anytime soon.

“I know this isn’t anywhere near the table yet,” she hears Bobby tell Eddie after dinner is done and the team is scattering around the station before they have to go on their next call. “But if you ever need my blessing, you’ll have it.”

She expects Eddie to brush Bobby off, to make a joke or an escape.

Instead, “I’ll hold you to it, Cap’.”

Huh.

Maybe she does need to get involved with other people’s business again.

If Eddie’s determined look at Buck across the room is any indication, he might make a move sooner than expected, and Hen would not want to lose the bet.

**Author's Note:**

> I hope you liked it! I wasn't going to put any buddie in it but it happened on its own.
> 
> Don't forget to leave a comment to tell me what you thought!


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